Aquaculture is the fastest growing sectors of food production worldwide and is vitally important to obtaining sustainable food security in the future. However, in the United States aquaculture continues to grow at a sluggish pace and is often misunderstood or completely unknown to many U.S. consumers.
In an effort to increase awareness for the next generation of seafood consumers and create defined pathways into the aquaculture workforce many extension educators and academics are creating K-12 aquaculture programs and working closely with K-12 schools to help integrate aquaculture curriculums into classrooms. A model initiated in Michigan that consists of three core initiatives geared toward creating a new aquaculture work force and an educated consumer base has arisen. The core tenants of this program include 1) K-12 Teacher trainings and assistance with teacher networking 2) K-12 curriculum development and a high school aquaculture competition and 3) Post-secondary programs identified and/or created.
The efforts that have been taking place in Michigan and the Midwest are centered around the Youth Education in Aquaculture Initiative (http://ncrac-yea.org/), an effort funded through a variety of funding partners including the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center, Michigan Sea Grant and the Center for Great Lakes Literacy. This program was started by Lake Superior State University Professor Dr. Barbara Evans, and is now co run by Dr. Evans and Elliot Nelson with Michigan Sea Grant. Through this effort a network of schools is being created to allow for cross school collaboration. In addition teacher trainings and curriculum resources are being compiled and offered. The keystone of the program is the Aquaculture Challenge, a competitive high school competition aimed towards engaging high schools in an integrative STEM and business competition. In addition new post-secondary programs have been created and are now seeing graduates who come through the high school programs and enter into post-secondary programs. This session will focus on these efforts and how they are leading to a clear and defined pathways into the aquaculture workforce.